Ask me Anything - mbml

How did you start playing poker?

Did you start from the bottom at NL2 and grind your way up?

Hey

Before you start playing, do you have a warm up or way of getting your head into the game?
Or do you just jump in & start grinding?

Same for finishing a session, do you evaluate your play or review hands?
Been reading mental game of poker lately & wondering how people prepare to play their A game at higher levels.
Thanks!

Should be the start of a great thread

Biggest mistakes you've made and biggest regrets as a poker player?

What are the common mistakes poker players make early in their career? And how to deal with/avoid them?

If you could restart your poker career, what's the one thing you would do differently?

Do you feel happy?
Do you have a beloved one who shares your interests and supports you?

Originally posted by ThatGuyMatt
How did you start playing poker?

Did you start from the bottom at NL2 and grind your way up?

In 2008 I was serving my mandatory military service. I had a nice 9-5 office job and had a ton of free time. That was pretty much during the decline of the local Warcraft III scene and I felt like I had nothing to strive towards and was feeling pretty bored.

One of my friends and disciples (back then he used to ask me to train his Orc skill a lot and practice with him for competitions) was making quite a bit of money selling play money on Fulltilt Poker. I actually downloaded the software and watched him play for a while. Felt that it was pretty ok.

In Aug 2008 I was introduced to pokerstrategy, got my free starting capital at Titan poker and never looked back.

Back then, SSS was popular. Honestly it's a good strategy because it's really simple to learn, just play 9% of starting hands in FR and cbet Flop 100% of the time, and barrel anytime you improve to a 8out+ draw. Doesn't really require much skill IMO. I was quickly able to 24-table due to the simplicity of this strategy and I started out at NL10. But the bad thing about it is that in 2009, poker was starting to get a little tougher and the basic SSS strategy just wasn't working too well. I had to adjust it slightly, with wider stealing and restealing ranges.

So I eventually got to NL100 FR with a 1k+ bankroll. I was somehow actually able to grind it up to 3-4k at one point in time but I went on a downswing and rebuilt my bankroll at pokerstars with 700$, playing NL25 BSS SH. From then on I mostly stuck to 6max games, though I did play some midstakes FR for some period of time in 2010.

Originally posted by dannywratten
Hey

Before you start playing, do you have a warm up or way of getting your head into the game?
Or do you just jump in & start grinding?

Same for finishing a session, do you evaluate your play or review hands?
Been reading mental game of poker lately & wondering how people prepare to play their A game at higher levels.
Thanks!

I don't warm up. But I rarely start a session right after waking up. Usually I'll wash up and eat breakfast and surf the net for 30-60 min before starting a session. I guess you can consider that a warm up. But I don't do anything specific.

If I'm feeling hardworking or if I want to work on my game, I will definitely review my hands. But honestly these days during the SNE chase I can't be bothered with that. I already have to put in such high volume everyday and I rather use my free time to relax and watch shows or play games.

I'll start working on my game next year and try to crush NL1k and maybe start playing some NL2k. I'm no expert at mental game stuff, so sorry I can't give you good advice about it. The way I overcome tilt was to grind my way through the bad times.

Originally posted by Riverdiver
Should be the start of a great thread

Biggest mistakes you've made and biggest regrets as a poker player?

Biggest mistake: playing higher than I should. There were a lot of times when I was overly eager to move up in stakes because I felt like I should be crushing higher limits. I was very impatient and I took a beating really often.

Which limits did I get crushed at? NL400, NL1000
There were times when I played NL2k and NL5k (probably 2 or 3 times) and I usually fared poorly. Anyway most of us are risk averse and the amount of utility/happiness lost from losing a single $ is more than the amount of utility/happiness gained from winning a single $.

So yeah, use a more conservative bankroll management and move up only when I feel comfortable

Biggest regret: Not switching over to poker earlier
Not spending more hours studying the game

I think I played way too little in the first 3-4 years. I was only averaging 100 hours a month. I should have treated it more seriously and spend another 20-30 hours a month analyzing and studying the game.

Originally posted by Rihard4a
What are the common mistakes poker players make early in their career? And how to deal with/avoid them?

I think people like to obssess over what some famous player said or do in some blog/video/forum thread. Maybe you need some inspiration from time to time. I was inspired by Girah's story but that turned out to be a sham ♦

Another thing is that beginners tend to be extremely reluctant to pay for coaching. Coaching accelerates one's learning so in the long run one should be able to rise through the limits faster and that should pay for itself.

If you are a working adult and are considering playing poker for a living, just use your salary and pay for some cheap 20-30$/h coaching. Investing in yourself is always a good thing. Don't waste your money buying some designer clothing or eating at restaurants (if you are short on cash)

Dogs or cats

Originally posted by SheepMoose
If you could restart your poker career, what's the one thing you would do differently?

suck up to some coach and get a profit sharing for coaching deal in the first 3 months of my career. That would probably have saved me some time and pain. Maybe I would have been less of a rakeback whore as well and cut down on my tables played

Originally posted by WillyD
Dogs or cats

I don't really like animals. But dogs seem nicer than cats.

Originally posted by GreenPiece
Do you feel happy?
Do you have a beloved one who shares your interests and supports you?

I'm more or less happy with where I am today. It could have been better if I was playing at higher limits and crushing my opponents more but hey, I don't think I did put in too much effort getting to where I currently am. My effort/reward payout is pretty decent IMO.

The bad thing about being a professional poker player, is that you tend to have too much free time and honestly I feel bored all the time. With that said, at least I have the luxury of time, something that most working adults lack. I'm going to use it to travel and learn new stuff and make my life more interesting and fulfilling.

I'm single.

You capable to mass multitable insane amount. Could you show us your monitor set up?

there's nothing fantastic abt my setup. you can check it out at my blog galvinbay.net

Can you give me free lessons?

Spoiler

Hi mbml,

As a micro-stake player I really liked your e-book, congratulations.

What do you think at nl25 is it worth to play zoom or other fast games (4 tables) rather than playing 4-6 normal with maybe weaker opponents but much less volume?

I play 60-80 hours a month.

Cheers!

Originally posted by Rihard4a
Can you give me free lessons?

Spoiler

my free lessons are available on the Video section of Pokerstrategy